Groundhog Day

When I first moved to America the only Groundhog Day that I was familiar with was the movie starring Bill Murray and Andie McDowell. Little did I know that Groundhog day was all about a squirrel like creature and his shadow predicting 6 more weeks of winter. The celebration is quite an interesting one and of course having a child in school now, I get to hear all the details of these little American traditions.

For those of you unfamiliar with this tradition (mainly my English friends), groundhog day is an annual holiday celebrated on February 2nd in the US and Canada. Everyone watches as the groundhog comes out of its burrow. If it doesn't see its shadow, it will come out of the burrow letting us all know that winter will soon end. The bad news is when the groundhog sees its shadow. This supposedly scares it back inside and it means that winter will last for 6 more weeks. There are a number of groundhogs all around the country. There's Buckeye Chuck from Ohio, and Woodstock Willie from Illinois. The most famous of the group though is Punxsutawney Phil from Pennysylvania and the bad news is is that today he saw his shadow. We are so excited for winter to last six more weeks!